Tom Gehrels Papers,
1894-2011
(bulk 1961-2000)

MS 541

Tom Gehrels Papers, 1894-2010 (Bulk 1960-2000). This collection is comprised of mostly professional papers and some personal papers of Dutch/American astronomer Tom Gehrels. The bulk of the material relates to his career as a professor and astronomical researcher at the University of Arizona.

Biographical Note

Tom Gehrels was born Anton M. J. Gehrels in Haarlemmermeer, the Netherlands on February 21, 1925. As a teenager, after Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1939, Gehrels became active in the Dutch Resistance. He later escaped to England where he received further training and was sent back by parachute to his native country as an organizer for Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) which committed sabotage and spied on the German forces!

After the war he attended the University of Leiden where he graduated with a degree in physics and astronomy in 1951. He continued his education at the University of Chicago where he obtained his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics in 1956. Dr. Gehrels was a research associate at Indiana University and McDonald Observatory for five years where he pioneered the first photometric system for asteroids.

In 1961 he joined Dr. Gerard Kuiper at the University of Arizona where he was one of the first members of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and a faculty member of the Department of Planetary Sciences and Astronomy. Gehrels remained at the University for the next 50 years until his death in 2011.

While at the University of Arizona Dr. Gehrels developed a program of photolarimetry. His studies led to the discovery and interpretation of wavelength dependence on the polarization of light from a variety of objects. He was the principle investigator for the team that created the imaging photo-polarimeters for Pioneers 10 and 11 and the 1st flybys of Jupiter and Saturn in the 1970,s.

He participated in the discovery of over 4000 asteroids. This was done in a sky survey using the 48-inch Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory in California and shipping the plates to two Dutch astronomers at Leiden Observatory, in the Netherlands who analyzed them for new asteroids. Gehrels also discovered a number of comets

Dr.Gerhels also developed and taught introductory astronomy courses that were popular with non-science undergraduates. Besides teaching at the University of Arizona he also lectured at the Physical Researh Laboratory in Ahmedabad (India), where he was a Lifetime Fellow.

In 1980 Dr. Gehrels started the Spacewatch Project (a program to find dangerous asteroids and to keep them from hitting the earth), this program still uses the telescopes at Steward Observatory and Kitt Peak to survey the sky for asteroids and comets. He was also the founder of the highly recommended Space Science Series which was published by the University of Arizona Press. Gehrels was the editor for the first 30 volumes of the series.

Tom Gehrels was a part of the Dutch resistance during World War II and his brother died at the Dora concentration camp where the VI and V2 rockets were built toward the end of the war. In 1994 he was asked by the journal Nature to write a book review on the biographical memoir “Wernher Von Braun: a crusader for space”. The book praised the life of Wernhen Von Braun as the father of the American Space Program. In his review Gehrel’s claimed the authors glazed over the fact that Von Braun was also the “Rocket Czar” for Nazi Germany and responsible for the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of people. Tom Gehrels also claims that Von Braun played a role in extending the life of the Third Reich, as well as World War II.

In the latter part of his career Dr. Gehrels focused on the research of cosmology and universal evolution. He published an original paper on the subject titled “The Multiverse and Origin of our Universe”.

In 2007, the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences presented Gehrels with the Harold Masursky Award for meritorious service to planetary science. In April 2011, Gehrels was honored for his 50 years of service at the annual University of Arizona Service Awards luncheon.

Tom Gehrels was the husband of Aleida J. Gehrels (née de Stoppelaar) and father of Neil Gehrels, George Gehrels and Jo-Ann Gehrels. He died in Tucson, Arizona on July 11, 2009 at age 86. . He was devoted to yoga and hiking as well as an active member of Greenpeace and the Humane Farming Association (HFA).

Scope and Content Note

Papers 1894-2010 (bulk 1960-2000). This collection consists of the professional and some personal papers of Tom Gerhels. The bulk of the material consists of his correspondence with other astronomers, scientists, state and federal politicians. There are also scholarly files, research files, and personal interest files. Almost all amassed during his fifty year career at the Lunar Planetary Laboratory and the Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona. Other items in the collection are; environmental files, travel files, instructional files, newspaper clippings, photographs, slides, film, computer disks and CD,s.

Arrangement

This collection is organized into This Collection is organized into fourteen series.

Restrictions

There are no restrictions on this collection.

Copyright

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish
from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record,
the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The
user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for the
University of Arizona, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all
claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of
copyright.

Credit Line

Container List

This series contains 2 subseries. Subseries 1 contains personal files including his individual interests, family tree, his involvement with Catalina Vista Neighborhood board, personal photographs, the family vacation to Lake Powell in 1963 and his sabbatical in 1970. Subseries 2 includes some of his college class notebooks when he was a student from 1950-1956.

This series is arranged alphabetically. It’s a record of Dr. Gehrels writing career. This series is divided into 5 subseries: 1. Publications including; articles, lectures, presentations 2. books; 3. book chapters; 4. book reviews; 5. The Space Science Series.

Spacewatch is the name of a group at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory founded by Prof. Tom Gehrels and Dr. Robert S. McMillan in 1980. The primary goal of Spacewatch was to explore the various populations of small objects in the solar system, and study the statistics of asteroids and comets in order to investigate the dynamical evolution of the solar system populations. Spacewatch also finds potential targets for interplanetary spacecraft missions, provides follow-up astrometry of such targets, and finds objects that might present a hazard to the Earth.

box

folder

22

6

Fund raising letters and mailing lists, 1971-1986

22

7

Spacewatch program, 1977-1981

22

8

Camera, 1992

22

9

Camera; scanning the sky with the CCD, 1980-1983

22

10

Camera - SETS. Inc., 1984

22

11

The First Spacewatch survey of faint minor planets; an observing plan for March 1984-1985

There are approximately 100 disks, very few of the disks are dated, there are numerous subjects such as; grant files, proposals, reports, Spacewatch publications, Gehrels publications, Space Science Series files, and the book “Origin”, etc.